inverted vs non-inverted input?

[beefchowmein]

On the Jeff Rowland Model 1, it has both inverted and non-inverted unbalanced input. I tried an A/B test with one vs the other. Some type of music sounds better on inverted while other sound better than on-inverted. Which one is preferred?
I'm not a double E by trade so not quite sure what those terms mean?

Can anyone give me an insight?
thanks

 

[roberto]

On the Jeff Rowland Model 1, it has both inverted and non-inverted unbalanced input. I tried an A/B test with one vs the other. Some type of music sounds better on inverted while other sound better than on-inverted. Which one is preferred?
I'm not a double E by trade so not quite sure what those terms mean?

Can anyone give me an insight?
thanks

Hola...what you have there is an option of phase. As you can tell the difference, some recordings are made with +signal and others -signal. The industrial says that you can not tell the difference (????!!!!) of course that we can. You can have your records with a mark, and play them the best way that they sound. Also there are preamps, like Conrad Johnson, that their output is out of absolute phase, then you can use the inverted input to be ''in phase'' with the rest of you system. Happy listening,
Roberto.

 

[risabet]

On the Jeff Rowland Model 1, it has both inverted and non-inverted unbalanced input. I tried an A/B test with one vs the other. Some type of music sounds better on inverted while other sound better than on-inverted. Which one is preferred?
I'm not a double E by trade so not quite sure what those terms mean?

Can anyone give me an insight?
thanks

The issue of inverted vs. non-inverted is to keep the musical waveforms in the same orientation (+) as heard live (unamplified). I can differentiate + and - phase but it is a hit or miss (50/50) proposition to believe that the engineer got it right in the first place so unless you have a phase switch it is hard to compare. IME it is easier to hear phase differences when the instruments in question have more asymmetrical waveforms.

The following image is of a clarinet and a trumpet playing an A=440Hz. Note that if you flip the waveform over i.e. make it out of phase, it will look and sound very different.

Keep in mind that very few speakers can actually deliver a proper impulse (step) response so that any phase differences are usually masked by the speaker itself.

 

[beefchowmein]

I just got the Cary CAD-5500 which has a Reverse Phase Canceling technology. So having the CD player going through this should pretty much eliminate the inverted or non-inverted input difference? So I don't have to keep A/B the inputs when I switch CDs?

I guess I need to do more listening with the Cary to test this out.
thanks for the info. Very informative.

 

[risabet]

So I don't have to keep A/B the inputs when I switch CDs?

What? Why would you do that? My point is that every recording, and on a multitrack recording, individual instruments, my be out of absolute phase and out of relative phase with each other. You can't be sure that any phase switching is "correct" but of course you can have a preference.